


Echoes

by talkingtothesky



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 03:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkingtothesky/pseuds/talkingtothesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam wakes up to the sound of his name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes

_"Sam."_

Sam's eyes flickered open. He'd been drifting on the edge of sleep, mind hazy, so he wasn't entirely sure whether what he'd heard was real, but the urgency in the tone tugged at something in his chest and dragged him closer to awareness. He was curled up on his side, one hand tucked beneath the pillow, going numb. Sam blinked into the darkness. He could just about discern the outline of the clock on the wall - new, bought it last week, he remembered dazedly, along with this bigger better bed, though apparently he was forever doomed to have an incomplete night's sleep, whatever level of comfort his mattress could provide him.

"Sam, _please_."

Tension snapped into being along Sam's spine. Slowly he uncurled from his position and rolled onto his back, flexing his numb hand and turning his head to stare at the figure who had spoken behind him. Gene was lying on his back, but with his face turned away from Sam, so he couldn't see the expression on Gene's face, and perhaps that was just as well. There had been something desperate in the voice, something deep and private. 

Sam watched the rise and fall of Gene's chest carefully. His breaths were even, there were no shuddering intakes to suggest upset - and wasn't that just incomprehensible where Gene Hunt was concerned? He was unflappable. He'd never said 'please' to anyone in his life, least of all Sam Tyler.

_"Wake up."_

Sam's skin chilled. That was Gene's voice alright, but scared and vulnerable as Sam had never heard it. He sat up and laid a hand on Gene's arm. "I'm awake, I'm here," trying to speak calmly, although he felt supremely freaked out. He leaned over a bit, against his better judgement, against his instinct that nobody should ever witness this, that Gene would thump him for intruding. But if he needed to talk...Gene's eyes were closed, and his face was wet. Another bolt of fear shot through Sam's stomach. He didn't know how to handle this, hadn't a fucking clue.

_"Why would you do this?"_

Sam was watching Gene's lips this time, and even in the dark he was certain they hadn't moved. It wasn't a mumble or a whispered plea, it was a broken, angry demand. In one moment, Sam understood. There was only one explanation, unless Gene had somehow learnt the art of ventriloquism. Gene was dreaming. About the future. And Sam could hear it echoing back through the tenuous link he still held with his past life. Gene was really speaking these words, thirty years from now. Impossible? Definitely. But so was Sam flinging himself from the top of a building and living.

Sam's jaw clenched. He should never have told Gene the full story. At the time Gene had only nodded, expression blank, drawing Sam into his arms and letting Sam rest his head against his shoulder, and they had not spoken of it again. He should have guessed the knowledge would change something in Gene too.

"Guv." He shook Gene firmly, kneeling up and over him, hastily wiping Gene's chin and eyes and cheeks with his thumbs, hoping against hope that Gene would not remember the dream when he awoke. Would never know that Sam had heard him, would always hear him from now on.

Gene groaned as he cracked open his eyes. The frown lines between his eyebrows crinkled as he took in Sam hovering so close above him, and Sam went to back off, praying that this confusion meant forgetfulness. Before he could, Gene reached up and dragged him downwards, clashing their lips together, delving into Sam's mouth as though he had been dying for the taste of it. No such luck, then. Heart aching, Sam went with it, trying to make it alright again, trying to prove he was still alive in all the ways that counted.


End file.
